Latest / Simplified Sparky Marketing / Zero to electrical business owner in Adelaide! Liam Newman | Lucid Electrical

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Zero to electrical business owner in Adelaide! Liam Newman | Lucid Electrical · Simplified Sparky Marketing

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: You rock up in a Kmart Fluoro and a beat up Tarrago or something with conduit strapped to the roof.
• 0:06
  SPEAKER_00: You look cheap.
• 0:07
  SPEAKER_00: And that's like that's that's honestly a thing, and that's why people are like, Why do I get the shittest leads when you hear the best stories?
• 0:13
  SPEAKER_00: But it's like business is tough, business is not easy.
• 0:17
  SPEAKER_00: That's what my job is, is to like save you guys making all the stuff up that I did along the way.
• 0:21
  SPEAKER_00: Liam Newman from Lucid Electrical, a resident South Australian member.
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome to Simplified Sparkly Podcast.
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, thanks for having me.
• 0:29
  SPEAKER_00: Pleasure to be here.
• 0:29
  SPEAKER_00: Liam, you were one of the quickest members to pull the trigger on joining the mentorship.
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_00: From your initial email to I think it was like six or seven hours into the day, you were after signing up.
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_00: You don't mess around.
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_00: You're also a pro drummer, which is one of the main reasons you came to me as well, was to sustain the lifestyle of having the pro drumming gig and your electrical business.
• 0:53
  SPEAKER_00: You came to me, and one of the things you said on the email was, I want to be able to have a professional business and do this as well.
• 0:59
  SPEAKER_00: But you started your apprenticeship in Sydney, you went up to Queensland and across to South Australia.
• 1:05
  SPEAKER_00: Give us the rundown of that.
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so I mean it sounds pretty cool being a pro drummer, but it just means I've got another ABM.
• 1:11
  SPEAKER_01: See, I'm not in A C D C it's more of a love thing.
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_01: But yeah, so I started my apprenticeship in Sydney.
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_01: I was doing instrumentation for the first two years, but then I quickly learnt, I was like, oh, it's a sparky ticket.
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_01: Um, if I can't wire a PowerPoint, it's no good, is it?
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_01: So I jumped into some service and maintenance, and then shortly after, yeah, I was starting to get into music pretty heavy, like wanted to pursue that, but had the ticket as well, so I was like, oh, I'll um just start working for myself for a bit, just dip the toes in the water.
• 1:40
  SPEAKER_01: Fortunately, I knew like my dad's best mate was a Sparky, so I had contacts, I was just subbing.
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_01: I had no idea what I was doing.
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_01: Fortunately, I joined the band in Queensland, so I quickly got myself out of trouble.
• 1:51
  SPEAKER_01: So I was in Queensland for two years, and then old man was down in Adelaide, so yeah, I just followed after him, so that's where I am now.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_01: So did you get your full ticket in Sydney?
• 2:00
  SPEAKER_00: Or yeah, so you got everything in Sydney and then took off to Queensland.
• 2:03
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
• 2:04
  SPEAKER_00: And when you went to South Australia, then what was the goal?
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_00: Were you just like, fuck, I'm starting my own electrical business or give it a give it a lash?
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_00: It was like there's no work down there.
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_00: Why did you want to do that pathway?
• 2:15
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, well, obviously I was touring a fair bit, so like I'm the worst employee.
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_01: Like, I've just be like, Yeah, awesome, I'm a wage for the year's office.
• 2:23
  SPEAKER_01: And they're like, You just had time off?
• 2:24
  SPEAKER_01: I'm like, Yeah, sorry.
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_01: But so yeah, I was doing labour hire in Queensland, and then the guy got me a job in Adelaide, it was super cruzy tier one, yeah, could take time off whenever I was just working casual, but then they hadn't won any work, so they're like, We're getting rid of all the casuals.
• 2:39
  SPEAKER_01: So I was like, Oh bugger.
• 2:41
  SPEAKER_01: I was like, it's either I work for myself and like keep doing the drumming or I just like drum teach.
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_01: I was like, there's no money in drum teaching, so I was like, it looks like I'm just gonna have to work for myself and figure it out from there.
• 2:52
  SPEAKER_00: Starting the business in South Australia, how did that look like?
• 2:55
  SPEAKER_00: What was the thoughts going on in the head?
• 2:57
  SPEAKER_00: What did you think you had to do?
• 2:59
  SPEAKER_00: What did you do when you first started?
• 3:00
  SPEAKER_00: Take us through that.
• 3:01
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I just went pretty rogue with it.
• 3:03
  SPEAKER_01: I was like, either I drum teach or do this, so I was like, thought about it for probably two days, then I was just like, alright, I'm doing it.
• 3:11
  SPEAKER_01: Got the van on high pages, as you usually are when you start.
• 3:15
  SPEAKER_01: But obviously, everyone I knew was from work, so they're all sparkies.
• 3:19
  SPEAKER_01: Only knew my dad, so I was like, first two weeks, I was like, I am killing it on high pages.
• 3:25
  SPEAKER_01: I got work, I was like, six months' time, I'll be rolling in Leeds, it'll be awesome.
• 3:30
  SPEAKER_01: And then um, pretty quickly after that, I was like, I've got no idea what I'm doing.
• 3:34
  SPEAKER_01: And then I think I just got into the podcast.
• 3:36
  SPEAKER_01: I think you your Instagram found me.
• 3:38
  SPEAKER_01: I think it started, I was like, what's all this about?
• 3:40
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and then it just kept coming up, and then I saw the podcast, I was like, Oh, I can spare 10 minutes.
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_01: Got into it, and I was like, Oh, this is killer.
• 3:47
  SPEAKER_01: So yeah, I got pretty deep into that, and then I was like, Yeah, probably need to reach out.
• 3:52
  SPEAKER_00: When you reached out, you said to me as well, you were at episode 80 or so, so you've you've carved through them in whatever a few days or whatnot.
• 4:00
  SPEAKER_00: And when you got to what what was the turning point when you were at like episode 80 where you were like, I need to reach out?
• 4:06
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I think I was seriously weighing up, like, well, like when I was drumming, like I got drum tuition, so I was like, you can teach yourself so much, and then I think the honesty in the podcast was a big thing.
• 4:18
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah because I was you see all these like coaches and they're like acting like they're the bee's knees, never done anything wrong, like they know exactly what's going on, and they can do the same for you.
• 4:27
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, you were just really honest, and I was like, fuck, we all appreciate that.
• 4:31
  SPEAKER_00: So I was like, Yeah, we all fuck up and we're all we're all fallible human beings, and like a lot of shit you see on Instagram and stuff is all sugar coated and podcasts as well.
• 4:39
  SPEAKER_00: You hear the best stories, but it's like business is tough, business is not easy, and that's like that's that's the brunt, and that's what my job is is to like save you guys making all the stuff I've put along the way.
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I think when you start as well by yourself, you question a lot, you're like, Oh, am I cut out for this?
• 4:55
  SPEAKER_01: Like, am I in too deep?
• 4:56
  SPEAKER_01: So um, to hear some honesty, I was like, Oh, that's awesome.
• 4:59
  SPEAKER_01: Obviously, the quality of like what was in the podcast kept me there till episode 80.
• 5:04
  SPEAKER_01: But um, yeah, I think it was the honesty.
• 5:06
  SPEAKER_00: I tried to keep it to the point, raw, real, and it's bad, but like into every podcast, not giving a fuck.
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_00: Like, I kind of I do give a fuck about the condoms going out there, and this is a crippling fear, and you jumped over this bridge, and I'd like I'm pushing the the guys inside Simfy Spark to do it.
• 5:22
  SPEAKER_00: Is put yourself out there like on socials and stuff like that.
• 5:24
  SPEAKER_00: If you want to get electrical work or whatever, we've spoken through methods of how to do it, but it's a massive fear.
• 5:29
  SPEAKER_00: People are afraid to be judged by other people they'll probably never ever chat to or they're not part of their friend group, and it's like people are afraid to be judged, so they don't take that leap.
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_00: And I just I'm just like fucking whatever's at the top of my mind is coming out in the podcast, and that's basically it helps loads of people that aren't even part of the mentorship as well.
• 5:47
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm cool with that, and that's that's like the rawness and realness that's there.
• 5:51
  SPEAKER_00: You had this gizmo that you spoke about on email, it was like a spreadsheet or something.
• 5:55
  SPEAKER_00: That's how you're so you were calling off hourly rate, was it?
• 5:57
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it was like an Excel spreadsheet which was missing like half the columns and like pre-filled out, and you try and enter something, and it'd be like there's no formula here.
• 6:06
  SPEAKER_00: Was it like like it's automated, or was it you have to like manually put it in a cell?
• 6:10
  SPEAKER_01: It would it would like add it all together, it had like formulas across the cells and whatnot, but yeah, you'd put in the hourly rate, and then I'd be like, oh PowerPoint, and then I'd go on the naked labour of units, and I'd be like, oh, so it takes this long to do a PowerPoint.
• 6:22
  SPEAKER_01: It just took so long.
• 6:23
  SPEAKER_01: And did did you believe or that time you were operating off hourly rate, was it?
• 6:28
  SPEAKER_01: I was still trying to quote up front because I think I was listening to the podcast on that time.
• 6:32
  SPEAKER_00: He makes a good point.
• 6:32
  SPEAKER_00: You're trying to like bundle price or like have it as like a lump itemized as such.
• 6:37
  SPEAKER_00: But doing it manually every time.
• 6:38
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, okay.
• 6:39
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that makes sense then.
• 6:41
  SPEAKER_00: Your hourly rate was at, I think, 140 an hour, and then it was 220-ish.
• 6:46
  SPEAKER_00: You realised when you had to, or when you got to level zero on Simplified Sparky, you were like, okay, shit, gone through the calculator which is now deemed retro with the new AI calculator.
• 6:56
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 6:57
  SPEAKER_00: You realised that you had to be an extra basically$100 more dollars on top of what you're already charging to sustain the lifestyle, obviously, of having the split of only working this amount of days and then being on tour or whatnot.
• 7:08
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, exactly.
• 7:09
  SPEAKER_01: And then I'm sure when everyone starts out, they're on the Facebook forums, they're typing up price lists and all that, and then you're going through the comments and you're getting so many mixed answers.
• 7:19
  SPEAKER_01: But yeah, it was a real eye-opener.
• 7:21
  SPEAKER_01: Because like really putting in the digits and seeing it being like, fuck.
• 7:24
  SPEAKER_00: The calculator's there, it's there for anybody's taking.
• 7:26
  SPEAKER_00: As well, actually link it underneath this.
• 7:28
  SPEAKER_00: It's there to scare the shit out of you.
• 7:29
  SPEAKER_00: Shit, I thought that much was okay, but it's actually not okay because when you factor everything in and the running cost and everything that's required to run the business, you're just like and take a decent wage.
• 7:38
  SPEAKER_00: And it's frightened the amount of people that will listen to guys on forums or to listen to what wrecks me is old schoolers, because the old schoolers hints why they're hanging out on Facebook forums because they've got like so much time with their hands, and their houses paid, they got their house for like two bits of fuck all back in like 1962.
• 7:55
  SPEAKER_00: It's like you try to buy a house in Sydney, now it's bananas.
• 7:58
  SPEAKER_00: I've seen the thing as well, what kills me about like established contractors to particularly newbie businesses, yeah, is like saying you have to charge for quotes.
• 8:07
  SPEAKER_00: I'm all for charging for quotes.
• 8:08
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, I've got a quote booked in next month that I've charged for.
• 8:11
  SPEAKER_00: He wants garden lighting done, and I charge him for that.
• 8:15
  SPEAKER_00: And the reason is it's supply and demand.
• 8:17
  SPEAKER_00: I've got enough work that I can be cocky and I can say I want to charge for that quote.
• 8:22
  SPEAKER_00: Whereas I think the people that are questioning should they charge for quotes or people that are quiet or have no work at all, or they're start-up businesses and everything, oh you have to charge for quotes.
• 8:31
  SPEAKER_00: It's like beggars can't be choosers, like it's like you can use a small amount to qualify them, be it like$49 or something like that.
• 8:38
  SPEAKER_00: If you want to say, like, hey, look, it's going to cost you$49 for us to come out, get a technician out there, will assess it, go through it.
• 8:44
  SPEAKER_00: That that may act as a qualifier for them to be like, okay, cool, I'm happy to pay that.
• 8:48
  SPEAKER_00: And then you can take it off the invoice if they do go ahead, which is always a good thing.
• 8:51
  SPEAKER_00: And it's like these are the guys that are like semi-retired, if not retired, giving advice to like guys in a totally different economy at the moment.
• 8:58
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, 100%.
• 8:59
  SPEAKER_01: And also, like, you don't know what industry they are in electrical.
• 9:02
  SPEAKER_01: There's such a vast number of opportunities out there where it's like not everyone has eight billable hours a day.
• 9:08
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 9:09
  SPEAKER_01: So if you're taking advice from then, and they don't have the overheads as well, it's kind of like, but at the start, you don't know any better.
• 9:15
  SPEAKER_01: You're just like, oh, the this comment's got the most likes.
• 9:18
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah.
• 9:19
  SPEAKER_00: I guess I'm going with that.
• 9:20
  SPEAKER_00: It's exactly the same.
• 9:21
  SPEAKER_00: When I started my electrical business, that's where I got my information, and there's there's a sense of like pride as well.
• 9:26
  SPEAKER_00: So when I started my electrical business, I there was another guy that started his at the same time.
• 9:30
  SPEAKER_00: And we were both kind of like too ignorant, I think, to collaborate and be like, Do you think this or do you think that?
• 9:36
  SPEAKER_00: We'd like both seek our own information.
• 9:37
  SPEAKER_00: Like, well, I heard this and I heard that.
• 9:39
  SPEAKER_00: Like, so it's just like you do it that way, I'll do it this way.
• 9:41
  SPEAKER_00: But I remember him saying to me, like, he had a mate in part, and he was like, he's charging 90 bucks an hour.
• 9:45
  SPEAKER_00: I was like, 90 bucks an hour, no fucking way.
• 9:48
  SPEAKER_00: I think I started off with like 60 or 70, something ridiculous.
• 9:50
  SPEAKER_00: I wouldn't even cover a fucking wage.
• 9:52
  SPEAKER_00: But that's what happens if you don't know or you listen to the wrong people, you just get down, led down the wrong path.
• 9:58
  SPEAKER_00: When you jumped onto the mentorship, something I noticed about you was you grabbed the bull by the horns, you just plowed through, you got your hourly rate, you moved to the next level, you figured out the work you wanted to do, you figured out your target market, you moved on to your messaging, and then your website and all that got sorted as well.
• 10:14
  SPEAKER_00: Where does that come from?
• 10:15
  SPEAKER_00: Because I could be wrong, but I see you as someone that's quite meticulous and pedantic with stuff, and you just grab something and run with it.
• 10:22
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, to be fair, it's pretty easy when you don't have any jobs both.
• 10:25
  SPEAKER_01: You got the whole time in the world.
• 10:27
  SPEAKER_01: You got heaps of time, especially when you're stressed and like, yeah, I need to make it work.
• 10:30
  SPEAKER_01: You're kind of like it's more it's motivating.
• 10:32
  SPEAKER_00: One of the biggest motivators people have as well as kids.
• 10:35
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 10:35
  SPEAKER_00: Like I see like a lot of a lot of people that come to the mentorship as well, I've got kids, I need to do something here, because we got like the second or third on the way, and it's just like the the business can't sustain itself as it is going.
• 10:46
  SPEAKER_00: I remember you we had a conversation about like template, and you sent me a video back about the the template, and I it was just like it was very like meticulously laid out and everything that you had done.
• 10:56
  SPEAKER_00: I was like, fucking that's way better looking than my one, and um and yeah, like it seemed to be working for your electrical business as well.
• 11:02
  SPEAKER_00: But when you came on board, so you're with me since February, so that's about in around nine months.
• 11:08
  SPEAKER_00: So in the journey that you have have gone on from starting, like you literally came to me with a logo.
• 11:14
  SPEAKER_00: Now you're out there branded as a professional business, website, everything is looking really schmick.
• 11:19
  SPEAKER_00: What was it like going from your sheet from your old boss across to the likes of the job management like service met that you plugged in?
• 11:26
  SPEAKER_01: No, I didn't even know that was possible.
• 11:29
  SPEAKER_01: But like, yo, there's no way I couldn't like I could work without it.
• 11:33
  SPEAKER_01: There's just absolutely no way.
• 11:35
  SPEAKER_01: I think when I started as well, I just didn't think too much of it.
• 11:38
  SPEAKER_01: I was just like, I trust this guy enough.
• 11:40
  SPEAKER_01: I've listened to a hundred episodes, like I'm just gonna do what he says.
• 11:44
  SPEAKER_01: And yeah, even when I started, just having there was so much more in there than I would have thought.
• 11:48
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 11:49
  SPEAKER_01: Like the off the ground series as well was fantastic, and also I'm notorious for like seeing something just being like gravitating towards it.
• 11:57
  SPEAKER_01: It was good, like all the levels are locked off, so like you're forced to complete it, and there's so much in it that like I just never would have thought of doing.
• 12:05
  SPEAKER_01: Or if someone even told me to do, I would have been like, nah.
• 12:07
  SPEAKER_00: That's why I I do that, is like it's it's to pull a rein back to be like, get over there to do that.
• 12:12
  SPEAKER_00: It's very tempting to to brush through it, but I think what happens is like that saying of knowing and not doing, you may as well have not known because like you can skim through it, but if you go and you do and you implement, and you've seen yourself, you went through like the different levels and you made your way up to level four, then you kind of haul the anchors.
• 12:29
  SPEAKER_00: Level four is a big chunky one because it's all your media, yeah.
• 12:32
  SPEAKER_00: You kind of hauled the anchors, and then we went back and forth.
• 12:35
  SPEAKER_00: You went to the developer to do the website, and then yeah, you finally got the website up and running, and it turned out absolutely schmick.
• 12:42
  SPEAKER_00: So you had a mate as well that was a professional photographer as well, I think.
• 12:45
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah.
• 12:46
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah, I think that's all that's all tied into it.
• 12:49
  SPEAKER_00: When you signed up for the the mentorship, you had previously had a drumming coach, so that was a big thing for you to decide to take a leap as well, and like see something as an investment, not an expense.
• 13:20
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that's it.
• 13:20
  SPEAKER_01: Like, I always try and take advice of people I admire or they're in a position I want to be in.
• 13:25
  SPEAKER_01: So yeah, I was fortunate enough to get drum lessons from one of my favourite drummers.
• 13:29
  SPEAKER_01: His name's Nick, he's a bloody legend.
• 13:31
  SPEAKER_01: And I was like, well, you know what?
• 13:32
  SPEAKER_01: If I'm gonna do that to excel my drumming, which let's be honest is more of like a passion.
• 13:37
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I was like, if this is gonna help me build an asset in the future and make money, I was like, it's definitely worth spending the time.
• 13:43
  SPEAKER_01: And I was like, if I can fast track it, like it's a no-brainer, especially if I'm still wanted to uh take time off and stuff, and then yeah, got stuck, and then I was like, didn't even know that was possible half the stuff.
• 13:56
  SPEAKER_00: There's a correlation with this with the guys inside as well that other members have used like buyers' agents to find houses, they use wealth mentors as well to like plot out their retirement and stuff like that.
• 14:07
  SPEAKER_00: And I think like when you pay somebody that's gone ahead of you to basically lead you down the path that you want to go on.
• 14:14
  SPEAKER_00: I remember one of the first things I bought from my electrical business was like a two grand course for this fraudster, and I took like I took one thing out of the course, which was like referral partnerships and stuff, and that one thing paid for like the entire course.
• 14:27
  SPEAKER_00: The rest of it was like absolute garbage, saying to go to no member group on, like if that's still a thing where it's like a battling restaurant will have an offer up, so they'll be like, you know, two for one steak or pizza or whatever.
• 14:39
  SPEAKER_00: The guy who was saying to advertise on that to basically go in at a loss and then get into their house.
• 14:44
  SPEAKER_00: So it's like this is where my whole model comes in, where you need to know your target market, and like your target market isn't somebody that's seeking out a bargain to find you, an electrician, a low budget website or whatever, and that's why it's so important every pillar of Simplified Sparky that you do know your target market, that you're not just like chasing every sort of lead that you actually hunt where your actual leads do hang out.
• 15:06
  SPEAKER_00: What were the best things you took away from servicemen?
• 15:10
  SPEAKER_00: What you plugged in?
• 15:11
  SPEAKER_00: Like the obviously the the entire system is there, but like the pricing quoting and stuff like that.
• 15:17
  SPEAKER_00: How much of a difference was the pricing calling off of that versus your your your mystical spreadsheet?
• 15:24
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, it's so good.
• 15:25
  SPEAKER_01: Like having the bundles and the email templates, it's so good.
• 15:28
  SPEAKER_01: Like, even before I came, I picked the van up from the airport.
• 15:31
  SPEAKER_01: I was like, oh, I've had a lead, so I was like, got to quickly reply, just hit the template.
• 15:36
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 15:36
  SPEAKER_01: And then they've got a video and a form to fill out.
• 15:38
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 15:39
  SPEAKER_01: And then, yeah, knowing your target market's great.
• 15:41
  SPEAKER_01: Like I have great customers.
• 15:43
  SPEAKER_00: You said you said before we jumped on the call, actually, so you had one bad bad egg slip through a flyer.
• 15:49
  SPEAKER_00: Take us through that job, actually.
• 15:50
  SPEAKER_00: I never actually asked people the job.
• 15:51
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I've only had I've had like only a handful of bad clients, and they've all because they haven't been qualified.
• 15:57
  SPEAKER_01: It's always been emergency work.
• 15:59
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 15:59
  SPEAKER_01: So I've got there, he's got an old asbestos board, rewirable fuses, so I'm like, oh, this is no good.
• 16:04
  SPEAKER_01: He's a real old grumpy guy.
• 16:06
  SPEAKER_01: I was like, I just gotta get it sorted.
• 16:08
  SPEAKER_01: And he's like had like a loose connection into PowerPoint, it's burnt out, so I was like, all good.
• 16:12
  SPEAKER_01: I was like, you're bored, blah blah blah.
• 16:14
  SPEAKER_01: And then um he was just telling me how to do the job and like breathing down my neck, and then he called me back to do something else, and he was just super rude.
• 16:22
  SPEAKER_01: And then I was like, oh, just I enjoy like getting stuff done for people and seeing them happy.
• 16:28
  SPEAKER_01: I was like, oh, I don't like doing this.
• 16:30
  SPEAKER_00: There's so much to be said for warm clients and qualified clients.
• 16:33
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, 100%.
• 16:34
  SPEAKER_00: And that's why I stressed that like your website and your branding and your marketing needs to speak to them.
• 16:40
  SPEAKER_00: And now that was quite unlucky, and I think like if you piece it together, that guy probably just pulled a flyer out of nowhere.
• 16:45
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, he didn't like when I say nowhere, his mailbox or whatnot, but he didn't go online search like electrician northeast Adelaide.
• 16:54
  SPEAKER_00: No, he didn't even have an email.
• 16:55
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, there you go, and just caught like old schooler kind of thing.
• 16:58
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, he's not gonna do his research.
• 17:00
  SPEAKER_00: The really good thing about a good website is you'll attract the good clients and you'll deter the bad ones because the bad ones will look at this and go, This looks a bit too professional for me.
• 17:10
  SPEAKER_00: And like I I I honestly think that's a that's a thing where people that look at your website, it's very well laid out, you've got good reviews or whatever.
• 17:17
  SPEAKER_00: The the shitty clients will be this guy's too established for my liking.
• 17:21
  SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna head to your high pages or Facebook fucking marketplace or whatever to find those guys.
• 17:26
  SPEAKER_00: So I think there's the that guy came in quite cold, and that was unfortunate.
• 17:31
  SPEAKER_00: But the majority of your leads and stuff you find are nice people, then.
• 17:35
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, they're great.
• 17:35
  SPEAKER_01: Even learning how to qualify leads, like obviously, I kind of knew at the start, like I need the switchboard, like if I'm doing alterations and it needs to be like type A.
• 17:44
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 17:44
  SPEAKER_01: But um, learning how to qualify and having like a system in place which is repeatable, it's so easy.
• 17:49
  SPEAKER_01: Like, I just click a button, yeah, and then if it doesn't get filled out or they give me like a poor response, like I know it's about they won't make it to the end.
• 17:56
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so everyone that does, like I always have good clients, and I'm like, this is so much better than what I was doing.
• 18:03
  SPEAKER_00: 100%.
• 18:03
  SPEAKER_00: I call it hurdles, it's like a horse jumping over hurdles, yeah.
• 18:06
  SPEAKER_00: And like even little things like you spoke on in the mentorship of just like little tiny pillars along the way that you make them jump over just to see if they're a good fit.
• 18:16
  SPEAKER_00: And if somebody isn't willing to pay for you to go out and and do a quote, if you do charge for quotes, and they're like, Okay, we'll do a free, and if they don't come back to you with the information that you do request and they don't bother their ass to fill that out or even to fill out the form correctly, that to me is a dead giveaway from day one.
• 18:31
  SPEAKER_00: Is if someone fills out your online inquiry and it just has first name, their email, and it just says like PowerPoint or something like that, the worst type of client, because it's just like they're not asked to give you any more information, so they just want a quick price and a quick turnaround.
• 18:45
  SPEAKER_00: Now, someone watches might argue that they're like, Oh, I've had the best clients that way, but yeah, in my opinion, they're the worst, laziest clients.
• 18:52
  SPEAKER_00: Another big issue I see with Sparky's forms is like name suburb, what do you want?
• 18:58
  SPEAKER_00: Because it's just like you're leaving yourself open to let the shit climb straight through.
• 19:02
  SPEAKER_00: Not overdoing your form, having the right amount of context on your form is definitely the way to do with your name, email, address, phone number, what do they want?
• 19:10
  SPEAKER_00: Essentially, that's it.
• 19:11
  SPEAKER_00: If they miss one of those, to me, it's a huge red flag.
• 19:14
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, no, I agree.
• 19:15
  SPEAKER_00: Your Iron Man suit.
• 19:16
  SPEAKER_00: So, for people that are watching this or listening to this, the Iron Man suit is my what I've said is like you can't go to a wedding in a tracksuit.
• 19:23
  SPEAKER_00: Like, if I went to a wedding wearing what I'm wearing now and I was someone's groomsman, they'd just be like, What the fuck is this going on up on the altar or whatnot, wherever you're having your wedding?
• 19:31
  SPEAKER_00: Or even if I was the best man, I was like, show us the rings, and I just go up with the rings, and they're like, Who's the guy in the tracksuit?
• 19:37
  SPEAKER_00: You're not taken seriously, and this is such a big thing with like startup businesses as well.
• 19:41
  SPEAKER_00: Is you came on board with me with just a logo and you had no website or anything, and what we did was we put on your Iron Man suit, which was your branding, your website, your flyers, all of that.
• 19:53
  SPEAKER_00: You put all that together, your uniform, your photos for the website, collaborating that all together to make you look professional, and just recently as well, you've gone and you've sign written your van.
• 20:03
  SPEAKER_00: Even your van is tailored to your target market as well.
• 20:06
  SPEAKER_00: So, yeah, those little parts, when you rock up to quote a job in your van, it's all sign written, it's nice and neat, it's clean, you've got your uniform, they would have found you from the website.
• 20:15
  SPEAKER_00: You already look money, like as in you rock up in a Kmart Fluro and a beat up like Tarago or something with conduit strapped to the roof, you look cheap, and that's like that's that's honestly a thing, and that's why people are like, Why do I get the shittest leads or why am I not winning the job?
• 20:32
  SPEAKER_00: It's like they look at you and they look like you look, you don't look not expensive, but you don't look worth the money, kind of thing.
• 20:38
  SPEAKER_00: If you're like, Oh, it's gonna be like a couple of grand to do that, they're just like you that that should be like 200 bucks for you kind of thing.
• 20:43
  SPEAKER_00: You don't you don't deserve that, yeah.
• 20:45
  SPEAKER_00: Um not to sound mean, but that's like that's reality, is like people whinge to be like, oh, I'm not getting these jobs.
• 20:51
  SPEAKER_00: It's like if you I did a podcast on this, if you look professional, you get paid professional, and it's just it's it's totally the way with it.
• 20:57
  SPEAKER_00: With your leads and flyers, have you had success from the flyers other than the grumpy guy?
• 21:04
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it's been good, yeah.
• 21:05
  SPEAKER_01: But obviously at the start of business, you're always trying to get like as many leads as you can, like warm referrals, but like I'm not from Adelaide.
• 21:11
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 21:12
  SPEAKER_01: So that died out extremely quick, I'd say after three days.
• 21:15
  SPEAKER_01: Just trying all the avenues, but yeah, even like you touch on in the mentorship, like going like deep diving into the psychology of clients and stuff.
• 21:24
  SPEAKER_01: Like, I would never have thought to do that.
• 21:26
  SPEAKER_01: But then now I can see it everywhere, like even on my own van.
• 21:29
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, like I'll see other vans around.
• 21:31
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 21:32
  SPEAKER_01: And um, it's just something you don't think of otherwise, you know.
• 21:35
  SPEAKER_00: But there's there's all types of different clients out there.
• 21:38
  SPEAKER_00: There's like impatient clients, there's impulsive clients, there's like tight ass clients.
• 21:43
  SPEAKER_00: Again, the messaging will relate back to them when they do do that.
• 21:47
  SPEAKER_00: You have had great success, and again, recently with the remote quoting methods embedded into your systems.
• 21:53
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it's great.
• 21:54
  SPEAKER_01: I kind of only do rec remote quotes now, unless they like specifically ask.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_01: I was wasting so much time on site quoting.
• 22:02
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 22:03
  SPEAKER_01: Going out there for free, or then like sometimes at the start I'd be too scared to qualify them.
• 22:08
  SPEAKER_01: And then you go out there, they don't go ahead with it.
• 22:10
  SPEAKER_01: Whereas like the remote quote, they get qualified as well.
• 22:13
  SPEAKER_01: And then I can be doing something else more useful with my time.
• 22:15
  SPEAKER_01: Obviously, some jobs like need a site visit.
• 22:19
  SPEAKER_01: But nine times out of ten, remote quoting is yeah, it's the way to go.
• 22:23
  SPEAKER_00: One of the major levers to pull inside because I've been doing it with years and I hate going job going to jobs to quote because it's it's a time sock, you don't know if they're gonna go ahead.
• 22:35
  SPEAKER_00: It's mad that how different businesses operate.
• 22:37
  SPEAKER_00: I know so many businesses that literally go out that morning, they're going to that job that's booked in at 7am blind, and they're going in there with view to getting that job and booking it in and doing the work, or they're not working that day, or like they're gonna wait till the next league comes in.
• 22:51
  SPEAKER_00: To be honest, the best success rate comes when you are on site for the right client.
• 22:56
  SPEAKER_00: But the thing is you have to have so many moving parts built into your electrical business to do that.
• 23:02
  SPEAKER_00: When you first started out with your with your van and your probably paper diary, can you imagine you're running Google Ads as well at the moment?
• 23:08
  SPEAKER_00: Can you imagine running Google Ads and going to a job coding it like blind as you were at the very start, versus like being systematic the way you are now?
• 23:18
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, there's no way.
• 23:19
  SPEAKER_01: There's so many moving parts to a business that are just you wouldn't really think of.
• 23:23
  SPEAKER_01: Like you got your ticket, you don't really know what you're doing getting into business.
• 23:26
  SPEAKER_01: Like you have somewhat of an idea, but just having everything so organized, like I know, like I can move jobs to a queue, and then like I know what to look for rather than stressing about everything, like just trying to keep it like in my head.
• 23:39
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 23:39
  SPEAKER_01: Like I know I can just, you know, click in, look there, and just kind of smash through it.
• 23:44
  SPEAKER_01: And the email templates as well.
• 23:46
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it's just it's such a game changer.
• 23:48
  SPEAKER_00: Just being organized and being a professional business is is key.
• 23:51
  SPEAKER_00: That like what kills me as well is the agencies and stuff that prey on like startup businesses and the guys that get like cold calls from people and they're like, Do you want to do Google Ads?
• 24:01
  SPEAKER_00: I feel like they scan the internet for like fresh website, fresh ABN, and they're like fresh meat.
• 24:08
  SPEAKER_00: That's that's kind of that.
• 24:09
  SPEAKER_00: I was led down this path where the guy was literally like, How's your conversion rate?
• 24:13
  SPEAKER_00: Didn't ask me how much it was charging, how much whatever, and I was like, Oh yeah, conversion rates good when I was like 60, 70 bucks an hour, no wonder I was doing my conversion.
• 24:20
  SPEAKER_00: He was doing SEO at the time, and then he was like, I think you should do Google Ads.
• 24:23
  SPEAKER_00: I really think you should do Google Ads.
• 24:25
  SPEAKER_00: At the time, it was like two grand a month, which was uh batshit money to me at the time.
• 24:29
  SPEAKER_00: That was like insane money.
• 24:31
  SPEAKER_00: And I did it, and as I was saying to you earlier, I was getting phone calls.
• 24:35
  SPEAKER_00: Can you tell me if this smoke alarm is interconnectable?
• 24:38
  SPEAKER_00: And I was like down the phone, steaming, going like fucking cost me 40 bucks for this click.
• 24:42
  SPEAKER_00: And they'll prey on those businesses and they'll the businesses will be like, Yeah, brilliant, I'll do Google Ads.
• 24:47
  SPEAKER_00: They'll run the Google Ads, they might get a handful of leads, but they've got no system around qualifying them, booking them in, moving them along in job queue, giving them booking confirmation, reminders, tracking, professional call at the end of the day.
• 25:00
  SPEAKER_00: Text message.
• 25:00
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely, just text them.
• 25:01
  SPEAKER_00: If you're playing in the league with the big boys doing Google Ads, you need to be that professional outfit as well.
• 25:06
  SPEAKER_01: That's it, yeah.
• 25:07
  SPEAKER_00: How have you found Google ads in your neck of the woods?
• 25:10
  SPEAKER_01: Google ads have been good for me.
• 25:11
  SPEAKER_01: It was kind of a last resort.
• 25:13
  SPEAKER_01: I was plugged everything else, um, and I was like, oh, it's just it's not taking, it's like taking too long for it to compound and kind of get the ball rolling.
• 25:21
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 25:21
  SPEAKER_01: So I was like, fuck, I'm just gonna have to bite the bullet and learn how to do it.
• 25:24
  SPEAKER_01: But um, yeah, it's been it's been really good, but like when you work for yourself, you've got to wear all the hats.
• 25:29
  SPEAKER_01: So to learn how to do all that.
• 25:31
  SPEAKER_01: But yeah, it's that along with everything else, like the Google business profile, like social media, the van and everything.
• 25:38
  SPEAKER_01: Like it's a nice, steady workflow.
• 25:40
  SPEAKER_00: Hats off to you.
• 25:41
  SPEAKER_00: When I said to do this, do that, like a lot of members are like, oh, I'll do, I'll, I'll get to it when it comes to like making video and stuff like that.
• 25:47
  SPEAKER_00: With confidence and stuff like that, you have played in front of thousands of people drumming.
• 25:50
  SPEAKER_00: So you have got confidence in front of camera, and like you are very natural in camera, and it's fantastic that you went and you did the the video for your website as well, introducing yourself, which is phenomenal.
• 26:01
  SPEAKER_00: You've then repurposed that onto your social media, you've made social media ads in around smoke alarms.
• 26:06
  SPEAKER_00: At this early stage of business, people like yourself have to just try different avenues and put yourself out there.
• 26:12
  SPEAKER_00: And like you said, you move to Adelaide, and it's not like your immediate warm circle is there.
• 26:17
  SPEAKER_00: Other electricians get envious up in arms over Joe Blow, who starts an electrical business, and then he's got three guys working with him in like two a year or two years, he's got three, four guys, and they're beating their head off the wall, blaming themselves for like what am I doing that he isn't?
• 26:32
  SPEAKER_00: And odds are maybe he has an uncle who's a developer, he has an uncle who's a real estate agent or something that's gotten him in with two real estates, is keeping two guys busy, probably not making money, and then he's like got a another mate that's a builder and he's in with him, and then he's doing the odd few mum and dad jobs, and what seems from the outside looking in that he's got a crazy business, it might just be the case that he's just he's getting by the operation looks big, but he might be doing that well.
• 26:58
  SPEAKER_00: But the reason he got off the ground was all his connections.
• 27:01
  SPEAKER_00: My electrical business is nearly 11 years old.
• 27:03
  SPEAKER_00: It literally takes years for retention to start kicking in, your old clients coming back around again.
• 27:09
  SPEAKER_00: What's mental is like my clients' kids might have been, you know, 15 when I started, now they're in their 20s and they're like they're getting properties, and now I'm doing work in their units or whatever.
• 27:20
  SPEAKER_00: So it's like everything just starts to snowball when you have the right systems in place, and that as well as like with the retention system that you would have plugged in as well with the email retention, that's like you're planting a seed, like those emails that you're planting at the very start.
• 27:34
  SPEAKER_00: The first one doesn't kick in for like a month, and then it's just like after that, it's just like it trickles and trickles.
• 27:39
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and that's that again is like an employee that'll never take a sick day, and it's just like you won't even realize it.
• 27:44
  SPEAKER_00: That email would have gone out, and they'll be like, surprise email.
• 27:47
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it's like Liam, what yeah, I'd love to do that.
• 27:49
  SPEAKER_00: Or like, by the way, can we get these downlights installed?
• 27:51
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
• 27:52
  SPEAKER_00: You plugged all that into your electrical business, basically built all the foundations that you can go and like right now, you're thankfully in Sydney that you can come in here and do this because you're doing your other gig drumming, your business is set up in such a way that yes, you're not there, yeah, but like as you said, when you got to the airport, you're a template, boom, boom, and then just like straight over here, yeah.
• 28:12
  SPEAKER_00: Rather than being like, Yeah, hang on, call it like on like a piece of paper by the bin, just like writing shit down, and then be like, yeah, text me that or text, and then it's like where'd that message go?
• 28:22
  SPEAKER_00: Um so it's just you're you're set up as a professional outfit at the moment.
• 28:25
  SPEAKER_01: The last thing I wanted to do was like when I did start, it wasn't necessarily about making money.
• 28:30
  SPEAKER_01: Obviously, you're in business to make money.
• 28:31
  SPEAKER_01: It was like, I want to pursue this while I'm young and I've got the time.
• 28:35
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so like I had this opportunity, come up last minute.
• 28:39
  SPEAKER_01: Do you want to do this?
• 28:39
  SPEAKER_01: And I was like, yes, right.
• 28:40
  SPEAKER_01: And then the start of next year, I've got like two months of touring.
• 28:44
  SPEAKER_00: Most people tie themselves into the business with like handcuffs, particularly people go and work for builders.
• 28:51
  SPEAKER_00: Like, I always hate on builders, and there's some like there's some good builders out there, but I I personally don't want, I never want to fucking work with a builder.
• 28:57
  SPEAKER_00: What happens is the young guys are like they think that like the golden opportunity is working for a builder.
• 29:03
  SPEAKER_00: They go, they get tied to them, and then they go off on a holiday, or even away for a weekend or two weeks or whatever.
• 29:09
  SPEAKER_00: Builders ringing and builders texting them, or like they're like freaking out if that concrete gets poured and the conduits weren't put in yet, or yeah, are the are the jibrockers gonna jibrock the wall, or is that gonna be rendered?
• 29:19
  SPEAKER_00: Did I get that cable in?
• 29:20
  SPEAKER_00: It's just it's never ending.
• 29:22
  SPEAKER_00: That that's what tipped me over the edge to be like, I can't do construction work anymore.
• 29:27
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm an overthinker, I overthink everything.
• 29:30
  SPEAKER_00: And like I again with with staff and stuff like that, I tried staff, but I was so worried about if he fit if he tightened his connections, not to mind my connections, like that I was just like, I can't, I can't do it, I can't, I can't do this.
• 29:42
  SPEAKER_00: So that's why I set up the business this way: that it's it's straight to mums and dads, residential service and maintenance, get in, get out, get paid.
• 29:50
  SPEAKER_00: There's obviously other trickles of work as well from referral partners like EVs, cooktops and stuff like that, lighting stores.
• 29:56
  SPEAKER_00: It's setting up the business for a lifestyle business like you have.
• 29:59
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 29:59
  SPEAKER_00: And yeah, if you were to think to get a staff member in right now at the moment as well, we're doing the system stuff.
• 30:05
  SPEAKER_00: So it's a case of setting up the systems and then plugging a staff member into that.
• 30:09
  SPEAKER_00: And I dare say, with your systems that you've built already, if you were to say kind of a tradesman, like your pricing is there, everything that you need to get them set up property and quote the jobs quickly that they can go and do it, or they can even quote jobs themselves if you set it up in such a way.
• 30:22
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah.
• 30:23
  SPEAKER_01: I remember listening to the podcast and you were speaking about how you have six weeks off a year.
• 30:27
  SPEAKER_01: And I was like, fuck alright, yeah, I'm doing service and maintenance.
• 30:30
  SPEAKER_01: Because I'm not gonna be any good if they're like, oh, plasters are coming in Thursday.
• 30:34
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like, look, you can get good builders, you can get good work like that, but you're gonna you're gonna always be on edge to be like, I hope that job doesn't kick off because my partner's gonna freak out if I say like we can't go or whatever.
• 30:46
  SPEAKER_00: If you've got staff, whatever and staff got your back, fantastic.
• 30:49
  SPEAKER_00: But I still think I've got a theory that like with service and maintenance and going big, like you either go like massive or you pretend potentially stay small.
• 31:00
  SPEAKER_00: Because the in-between is like if you've got three, maybe four or five, six staff members, ideally you have an operations manager in there looking after them.
• 31:10
  SPEAKER_00: Otherwise, you have taken your way from somebody taken yourself away from somebody that's on the tools doing the work, enjoying what you do, to resenting the whole business because you're inside in the office doing office work and you hate office work, for instance, unless you hire an operations manager, where then the operations manager role will be the punch bag, whatever's going wrong, they'll take it.
• 31:32
  SPEAKER_00: But then you've got to earn your wage, the operations manager wage, between all your staff members as well.
• 31:38
  SPEAKER_00: So then they're now gonna have to recoup your wages, their wages because they're not billable if you're doing nothing.
• 31:43
  SPEAKER_00: And I think there's a big fantasy out there of like getting off the tools and like coaches out there saying like off the tools in 52 weeks.
• 31:50
  SPEAKER_00: I'm telling you right now, there's only a specific calibre of person that is psychopathic enough to like dial his business in in 52 weeks, and it's like and there are people out there like that that are like another league, another level, but they eat, sleep, and breathe business.
• 32:05
  SPEAKER_00: But for the regular people, I'm a fucking realist.
• 32:07
  SPEAKER_00: It's like I know when you guys come into the mentorship as well, like you guys get busy, you've got family, you've got tours, you've got whatever.
• 32:14
  SPEAKER_00: It's just like the reality is people do get busy, and that's why like I'm like you're at this stage, concentrate on that, move on to the next one.
• 32:21
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, but it's like just being sold the dream to get off the tools.
• 32:25
  SPEAKER_00: It's like I think getting fully off the tools is absolutely possible.
• 32:29
  SPEAKER_00: If I had a team of whatever, like six people, I couldn't comfortably relax when I'm in Europe.
• 32:34
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, nah, fully agree with that.
• 32:36
  SPEAKER_00: You've been in here nine months, you've made crazy progress from getting all your systems in place with your service mate, quoting, qualifying, winning work.
• 32:45
  SPEAKER_00: We never actually spoke about the the job that I think one of the initial jobs that you won through the new systems was I think it was like 2,300 profit in one day.
• 32:54
  SPEAKER_00: That was one of the early door ones of that moment of holy shit, this is possible.
• 32:58
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I think I was like, oh fuck, maybe I can do music, my little passion project, and run a business and still be profitable.
• 33:05
  SPEAKER_01: To be fair, like I don't have a mortgage or kids.
• 33:07
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 33:08
  SPEAKER_01: So just putting that out there.
• 33:09
  SPEAKER_01: But um yeah, after that, and then even just learning my price, and I was like, I've just made the money back from Simplified Sparky because I know what I'm charging now.